ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

Mike Adams is a “Tribal Troubadour.” His life is his music; his music is his life. In the tradition of American roots music tales he sings of people and times and places that bring us back to a common life. He was born on the Colorado-New Mexico border, soaking up the western and cowboy traditions; Native American and Hispanic cultures; and a working class ethic. He learned to play guitar in his father’s old gas station in Abiquiu, New Mexico where anyone passing through with a guitar taught him a song and the jukebox played big bands, Sons of the Pioneers, Patti Page, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra.

In the 1960s he played with the Knightbeats in Boise, Idaho, was drafted by the Army, came back to Lake Tahoe, moved to the Great Plains. He's played bar gigs in Ethiopia and Idaho, casinos in Tahoe, festivals in Colorado, old opera houses in Nebraska. He's played street corners and performing arts centers.

He won't label his style but if he had to--it combines a variety of musical genres: country classics like Hank Williams, Ray Price, Johnny Cash; blues’ great Robert Johnson; folk music of Woody Guthrie; pop classic Frank Sinatra; and Bob Dylan, Steve Earle & Bruce Springsteen. Like Dylan says, “A song is anything that can walk by itself.”